The Forsaken Camp (CLOSED)

I knew I was not sherlock but I deffinetly didn't know what was hapening. Leslie had changed the tone of her voice and had just called Charlie master. My eyes met Quintyn's and I gave her a "what's the plan" look. But we had to do something fast. I couldn't use any nyx powers because it would only make me weaker. I looked at Charlie and said " You know my mum is Nyx right ? Inwas just wandering if she.d like you to kill me. She would probably think I was unworthy, but she would be angry. And you see this mask, she hid an immense power inside, and I know you can feel it. But I think I just know how to use it so..." And then I stopped, I was starting to be ridiculous. I looked behind for no particular reason. Then, I looked back at Quintyn. She had to have a plan. But I needed to give her time. That was what I had to do. I had already started good, I just had to continue. I looked back at Charlie and continued blabbing. (I'm sorry if this doesn't mean anything but I didn't realy get what was really hapening. Oh and when should Nyx come or should she not come. Look at the Zack's future thread for what I want to happen)

I watched as events happened in front of me, completely confused and surprised by the amount of pure impulsiveness everyone in this quest group was acting on. For one, Roxy had attacked three old ladies to grab scissors. She had ripped the sweater they were knitting with the thread, and now looked incredibly distraught after Charlie had teased her about it. Gods, Quintyn. You should have listened to Chiron in Mythology class, I scolded myself. What kind of child of Athena are you?
Leslie had then pulled a stunt I had noticed. She had switched the scissors with another identical pair. I wasn't sure where she had gotten them, or how on Gaea's earth she had gotten them, but I wasn't going to ask her now. That was a question for later. I knew she was putting on an act for Charlie, it was obvious to see through, for me to see through anyway. I just hoped Charlie was too mentally unstable to even think twice about it. Wishful thinking. Where's that gonna' get you, Quin? Dead. I again, thought to myself. Gods, sometimes I wished I could shut the voice in my head up.
I watched as Charlie took the scissors from her. He looked at her with a pleased smile, it had a hint of amusement in there, which definitely didn't reassure me of anything.
"Please, call me Charlie. Master is so controlling. I'm not your master, I'm just helping you gain flawless equality. Y'know?" He said to her.
Zack had then piped up, talking about his mask. He said things I didn't understand. He talked about his mother, and his mask, and the power that it held. Charlie just looked on at him, with a knowing expression. I didn't like this Charlie. He seemed a lot more diabolical all of a sudden. He thought he was in the drivers seat, that he was running this operation. Over my dead body, I thought. I caught Zack's glance through his skull mask. He wanted me to make a plan. Gods knew I was the only one capable of a stable one right now.
Alright, Quin. How do we get out of here? I asked myself, immersing myself in my thoughts as Zack continued talking to Charlie about his mask. What can you do that doesn't result in anybody getting killed... Or fighting. He can't be fought, he's too powerful. You need to be able to throw him off. How? What can you do that he definitely can't? I then thought of something I couldn't believe I hadn't before. What can I do that he can't? I can con. I knew every angle of every con my father had ever pulled on people like members of the Russian Mafia and other sad, desperate shmucks. They were all just as mentally deranged as Charlie was right now. Set to kill anyone who got in the way of what they wanted.
"Nothing screams mentally unstable like gambling," I remembered my father telling me once as we sat at a casino in a Russian town and waited for his target.
"Charlie," I said strongly, interrupting Zack as he spoke. Charlie's icy gaze laid on me in response.
"Yes?" He asked with his eyebrows raised in an innocently inquisitive expression I wanted to wipe off his dirty face.
"I've had enough," I stated.
"Have you?" Charlie asked, a smile spreading onto his lips.
"I want to make a deal," I said.
"A deal?" He asked. I could tell he was suddenly curious. Wow, my dad had been right. Nothing screams mentally unstable like gambling.
"Yeah. I want to play a game of poker with you. If you win, you can kill, if I win, you have to let us go free." Charlie paced around in a circle as I talked. After I was done, he burst into a fit of laughter. I bit my lip, trying not to get angry that he didn't seem to take me seriously.
"Sounds like fun!" He finally exclaimed. "I like you. You make this whole killing you guys thing fun." I grinned at him.
"Oh, well, I'm glad I amuse you," I said sarcastically.
"So am I, Quinnie, so am I," he replied. "Follow me." He left the Fates to continue knitting their sweater. With a giddy skip in his step over our card game, he showed us deeper into the motel, the last place any of us wanted to go. The six of us trailed behind him. The twins took the lead, followed by Roxy and Zack, then Leslie and I. Being so far behind, I felt confident in sharing my plan with Leslie.
"Leslie," I whispered to get her attention. She looked at me from the corner of her eye, not moving her face towards me. "I'm going to need you to stand behind Charlie. Read off his cards and tell me his hand by mouthing them to me. It's only going to be us and him... Hopefully," I said. She gave a stiff nod in understanding. I let out a slow breath of relief, confident this may work.
Charlie entered a big room with a dining table in it. It had a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling. The table and chairs were crafted nicely out of wood. Each chair had comfortable pillows on the seats. Charlie pulled one at the end of the table out and sat in it. Emma walked behind his chair with her hands tucked behind her back and her chest puffed out. She glared at all of us, a smirk plastered on her face. Charlie glanced at the twins, who looked back at him with multicoloured glares.
"I, like, know you guys aren't working for me anymore or whatever... But if you could run along and get us some cards and chips that'd be great," Charlie said. He motioned with short flicks of his hands as he spoke. With a roll of her eyes, Shiloh walked swiftly out of the dining hall and took a left to go find a deck of cards. The others stood behind me as I took my seat a couple chairs away from Charlie on the right side of the rectangular table. Kaiser leaned on the door frame with his arms crossed as he waited for his sister.
"Can I get anyone some grape juice?" Charlie asked, tapping the table repeatedly with his finger tips, making the roll of thuds echo through the dining room. "No? Wow, aren't you all just rays of sunshine."
Shiloh returned a few minutes later carrying a wooden box. She set it on the table and lifted the clasp. Inside was a deck of cards and poker chips. I looked at Charlie with a grin.
"What? Are you saying you don't have a poker set stashed under your bed at camp?" He asked sarcastically, as if he actually thought I didn't. I thought about telling him I did, but I wanted him to think he was more in practice than I was. Instead, I grabbed the cards and slipped them out of their cardboard paper box.
"Roxy?" I asked. She looked at me with her hazel eyes after hearing her name. "Care to shuffle for us?" She took the deck from me and started to shuffle the cards for us. I wasn't at all sure if Charlie trusted me, but I definitely wanted to be someone he did trust. I didn't want to seem like a cheater just yet. Charlie watched the cards as they were folded over each other in Roxy's hands.
As she was doing that, I divided the chips equally between us. When Roxy was done shuffling, she handed me back the cards and I dealt them between us. Five cards each, face down in front of us. I set the deck down in between us, also facing down.
"You sure you want to go through with this?" Charlie asked. He looked confident, something I could definitely take advantage of.
"Are you good for your word?" I countered.
"Who do you think I am?" He asked, a hurt tone to his voice.
"You really want me to answer that?" I asked.
"Not really," he confirmed.
"Great, lets look at our cards then," I said. The two of us reached over our chips for our cards, lifting them so that the other couldn't see. I was holding a One Pair deck, with one four of clubs, a four of hearts, a king of diamonds a ten of hearts and a queen of spades. I looked up to Charlie, who looked down at his cards, his eyes shifting back and forth between his cards. I glanced up at Leslie while I could. She I read her lips. He held two 2's, two 3's, a 2 of hearts and an 6 of diamonds. I kept my face straight,and flipped my cards face down again. I was the one to be dealt the first card, which meant I was the one who made the first bet. Charlie had looked up and was now watching me. I slid two tokens off my pile and threw them into the pot. Charlie followed my lead, throwing in two tokens also.
His eyes narrowed at my win, as I collected the chips we had put in the middle. It was time to put three back again, and collect three more. The game had finally kicked off, and I had won the first round. I was getting us out of there, and I was doing it my way.

(Okay this has been dead for too long.)

Externally, I held a straight face, a calm demeanor that went along with my original "I got this in the bag" attitude. Internally, I was rejoicing that I was in control over winning the game now. I held the most chips, and Charlie was running out of chips to bet. The knot that had tightened in my stomach at the amount of chips he had bet loosened and I was back to genuinely feeling like I was going to win this. Alright, Quin, calm down. I thought to myself. [/i] You're not allowed to get cocky, you know your tell will show if you get cocky. [/i] I listened to the voice in my head, and let my mind relax. I could still lose this game, along with the lives of my friends and myself. Charlie was a lot more skilled at poker than I had thought. For one, he was a lot more confident than I had thought he would be. Two, I had expected to pick up a tell quickly, but his face was just as expressionless as mine was. I needed to focus on catching it in the next turn.
Roxy dealt us another five cards. I lifted mine confidently off the table to check what they were, unlike what Charlie was doing, lifting the corners. I knew I didn't need Leslie to tell me his cards in order for me to win this game. I was definitely better than that, I just didn't want to gamble as much as I did with a 50/50 chance of winning. I didn't let it show on my face that it was bothering me.
I looked down at the red and black numbers on the cards. a 4, 8, 6, and 10 of spades, and a Queen of Diamonds. I held a four of a kind. It was a satisfactory hand, I might be able to get away with bluffing this one. I set my cards down and lifted my gaze to Charlie, who turned up the corners of his. Okay, Focus Quin, what did dad tell you about finding a tell? Look at the body language, I thought as I mentally coached myself. He sat with his back hunched over, as he had done this whole game. Though I noticed his shoulders weren't as hunched as they had been before. He looked a lot more relaxed right now. I grudgingly decided that he had a good hand, a hand that he was pretty confident in, at least. He let the corners of his cards fall back to the table and he brought his crazy-eyed gaze to look at me. I raised my eyebrows and turned the corners of my lips up ever so slightly, just to show him that I wasn't worried at all. Which was a lie. I was quite worried. I needed to think about how I was going to play this. I didn't want to fold, in case he had been bluffing. He seemed to know a little bit about it. Maybe he was trying to intimidate me by relaxing his shoulders noticeably. I decided I'd bluff my way through this one. I threw in 5 chips, which Charlie matched without hesitation.
"Well, well, well," I said. "Aren't we confident." Charlie snapped his attention to me as I threw in five more. Charlie matched it, this time looking at his smaller amount of chips with narrowed eyes. He only had five more to bet with. I wondered if I could waver his confidence, find out if his shoulders were relaxed because of his tell. I threw in another five, and Charlie looked at me again.
"All or nothing, eh?" He asked. I nodded curtly in response.
"You just seemed so happy with your hand, I figured I'd throw you a bone," I said. Charlie obviously wanted to bet. He hovered his fingers over his last five chips he needed to match the five I had thrown in. He obviously thought his hand was good, but I had made him second guess himself. His shoulders were tense and square again. Perfect. I found it. Now all I had to worry about was if his hand was actually better than mine. He suddenly grabbed the five chips and threw them into the pot. It surprised me, and worried me. I could tell it hadn't been a bluff that his hand was good.
Please Gods don't let it be higher than a Four of a Kind, I silently prayed, keeping the grin on my face, needing to seem as confident as I could.
We flipped our cards, and the tight knot I had previously felt in my stomach tied itself up again. I heard the sighs of my peanut gallery, who's lives I had bartered, as they too witnessed my loss. His hand revealed a Full House, with three tens and two eights. His higher numbered cards outmatched my now lowly ranked ones.
A pleased smile slipped onto his face as he took the chips from the pot and added them to his collection. I was now left with a significantly lower amount of chips on my side.

"Nice try," he said as Roxy took the deck to deal us 5 more different cards. I slumped in my chair, resting my back against it comfortably.
"The party's just starting," I answered in a care free tone as I shrugged and started playing with one of my chips.
The five new cards were dealt, and Charlie and I took our time to analyze them. I was happy to see that I had been given quite the hand this time around. I looked on at flush with a Jester, a 9, a 10, a 3 and a 7 of clubs. I placed my cards down and glanced at Charlie. I took a look at his shoulders, they weren't very tense, but they were still square. I got the feeling that he wasn't as confident as he had been, but he thought he could still win a round. I debated on bluffing for a second time in a row, only doing the opposite and acting like I didn't have a very good hand. Weakness could often mean strength in poker. I averted my gaze from him as he set down his cards. I 'hesitated' and did the same. I threw in a bet, five chips, and sunk a little lower into my chair. Not an obvious amount, just enough so that he could possibly notice. He matched my bet and looked me up and down.
"Starting to worry about your life, Quin?" Charlie questioned. I let my expression harden in response and threw another three chips in. Charlie matched it, but added five more. I matched his bet to stay in the game, but pretended to hesitate as I did. Charlie looked like he was catching all my little hints, and taking them seriously. Maybe the more excited he got about this, the less he would pay attention. Maybe he thought he was finally getting to me. With a straight face, Charlie threw in 10 chips. If I matched it and lost I wouldn't have many to bet with anymore. I was fairly certain that I had the better hand. I took my time pondering this, and kept a straight face. Too much of a bluff was never good, and could easily be seen through. I finally matched his bet, throwing ten more chips into the pot. The two of us stared at each other as we flipped over our cards. We each dropped our gazes to analyze the others hand. He held two 8's of hearts, a 5, a 3 and a 6. A one piece, which had no value over my highly numbered Flush. Victoriously, I took the 36 chips from the pot to add, leaving charlie with once again, a small amount.
Right, careful not to bluff too much now, I thought to myself. He'll be looking for bluffs. Roxy took the deck, and shuffled again.

I stared at the two opponents as if I was watching a highly competitive ping pong tournament. Being so close to such heavy air, thick with tension between Charlie and Quintyn, made me feel dizzy. All I could catch were glances, grins, and the ocassional banter, but everything else was a completely different language only the two poker players could understand. I pressed the palm of my hand over the smooth top of the deck, praying to my dad, to Tyche, to anyone who would listen- that we would leave here alive and without seeing those hideous fates again. My memories resurfaced to my trance, where I had watched myself die, and I knew that coming across the Fates was going to be inevitable. No one can outlast them. Not even the gods were safe.
"Hey!"
I almost jumped out of my chair as Charlie broke free from his calm facade and yelled straight into my ear.
"You don't think I have cooler, more important things to be doing?" Charlie said as a matter-of-factly. "Hand out the fucking cards and I might make you go first so you don't have to watch your friends die when you guys go snip snip."
The words were harsh but Charlie looked at me disappointedly, like the look a sad puppy gives you when you accidentally step on their tales. I wanted to apologize and give him the cards as quickly as I could but then I remembered how pissed off I was.
"...Maybe if you say please." I pouted.
I meant to make that sound super assertive but it came out as barely a whimper. I was sure I was signing my death sentence then and there.
Charlie looked a bit offended, leaning back into his chair and looking at Quintyn, pointing at me with his thumb as if verbally exclaiming 'this girl!'.
"You know what? Please. Por favor, s'il vous plait."
I grudgingly passed him his five cards.
"Grazi." He nodded, pleased with finally having his cards on him.
I handed Quintyn her deck and I stood up from the table. I needed to get away from this crazy air. It was a surprise Quintyn hasn't began hallucinating or sputtering nonsense across the table under Charlie's stare. I strode over to everyone else, who stood together at a distance. Kaiser had his arms crossed with a permanent scowl on his face as his mismatched eyes stared at the poker game ahead of him. Shiloh kept playing with a broken radio that lay discarded on an empty pool table, her eyes darting nervously to the match. Zack sat on top of the pool table, a pool stick in his hands that he was rubbing along the palm of his hand. I huffed out a sigh and as I joined Zack sitting on the table I heard static erupt from the supposedly broken radio. Shiloh's eyes widened as she gripped the radio and brought it over to my lap. The static became clearer now, and the radio began playing Don't Bring Me Down.
"Woah, I didn't know we had our own portable antenna." Shiloh whispered.
Everyone, even Kaiser, gave out a chuckle, half-forced by the nerves and half-sincere.
"So, what happens if the girl loses." Kaiser coughed, regaining his composure.
"She won't." I assured him quickly.
Kaiser gave me a sideways glance. "There's always a chance we might get the boot, especially if Charlie decides that his morals need an update."
"He won't."
"You seem pretty sure of everything."
"Guys." Shiloh gave us a look and pointed towards the ongoing match.
Quintyn and Charlie seemed to be in a staring contest with each other. They were both analyzing each other movements but the other person was so concentrated on the other, any tells were hard to.... well, tell. After a while, Quintyn folded and Charlie took the large amount of chips that had been bet. My heart skipped a beat when I realized they were neck and neck. I walked back towards the table, glancing at Quintyn as I gave her replacement cards. Her eyes were kept on her cards, her lips pressed tight against each other that blended in with a completely expressionless face. The sides of Charlie's mouth kept twitching into a grin.
"Thanks, sweetie." He murmured as I handed him the cards.
I gave him a glare but all he returned was a mischievous grin. It unsettled me, and I had to look away after shivers were sent to my spine. I stared at the floor as I took my seat on the dealer's chair. I glanced back, Kaiser's eyes kept darting towards the door, gripping his sword until his knuckles were visibly white, even from here I can see the tension in his muscles working away a plan of double crossing the double crosser.

Cards were switched, chips were thrown across the table, eye contact was exchanged, and I was sweating in my converse. The middle of the table was piled up with chips and I realized this was really it. This was truly all or nothing. Every chip was bet and this was the end of it. Someone must have gotten tired of the game, and wanted it to end then and there.
"Looks like there's only one thing left that we can do now." Charlie looked onto Quintyn, his face surprisingly expressionless aside from the occasional twitch from the side of his mouth, but I no longer perceived that as something in his control.
The cards were turned over. The both had a full house. My eyes darted over to Charlie's hand. Three kings. I forced myself to look at Quintyn's deck. Three Aces.
That's when I felt I could pass out from all the pressure escaping my body at once. Despite the game being over, Charlie kept his poker face.
"Looks like you win." He didn't seem concerned or phased at all at our victory.
I wasn't sure if that was a bluff meant to scare us, or a tell promising that this was all part of his plan. All I knew, is that I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.